Inheritance

Q&A: When temptation to spend an inheritance strikes, what’s the right move?

July 22, 2024 By Liz Weston

Dear Liz: My brother is 54 and has always worked low-wage jobs. He owns a condo thanks to the help of our parents, and his monthly expenses are very low. He’s in a stable position. He does not have any retirement savings or really any other savings to speak of. Recently, he came into an inheritance of $62,000. He has asked my sister and I to help him make that grow and be secure until he retires and chooses to draw on it. What is the best way to help him grow this money in a safe way? We’d like it to be somewhat secured as we all are aware that the temptation to spend it now is strong.

Answer: The first step in investing is understanding your goal for the money and your timeline (how long until you may need the cash).

Your brother likely has at least two goals: an emergency fund and retirement savings.

Financial planners typically recommend an emergency fund equal to three to six months of expenses. A smaller amount can work for people with a lot of other resources, such as stocks they can sell, lines of credit they can borrow against or generous relatives who are willing to help. A larger amount might be smart for people with fewer resources or who might be out of work for extended periods.

Emergency funds need to be accessible, so the money should be in a safe, liquid place such as a bank account. To make the cash less tempting, your brother could consider opening a savings account with an online bank. These banks typically have no minimums and no fees, plus they pay a higher interest rate than their brick-and-mortar kin. Transferring the money to his checking account would typically take a few days, making it less easy to spend on impulse. Another option is to buy certificates of deposit to tie the money up for a set period of time. He can break into the CDs in an emergency but would have to forfeit some interest.

He can take more risk with his retirement funds, as he is likely at least a decade away from retirement. One option is to invest in a low-cost target date retirement fund, which gradually gets more conservative as the retirement date approaches.

Your brother can contribute up to $7,000 this year to an IRA or a Roth IRA. A Roth IRA may be the better option, since he’s unlikely to get much tax benefit from an IRA’s deductible contribution and Roth IRAs don’t have minimum distribution requirements.

He doesn’t have to limit his retirement savings to that annual contribution, however. He could consider investing more with a regular brokerage account and just mentally earmarking it for retirement.

Q&A: Is it better to spread your wealth between two financial advisors?

July 15, 2024 By Liz Weston

Dear Liz: My parents left me with financial accounts at two companies. My instinct is to combine them to deal with one less company. Is there a downside to doing this?

Answer: You should first determine whether any of the inherited accounts is a retirement account because those come with special rules. You can’t simply merge an individual retirement account with a taxable brokerage account, for example. And you’ll want to consult a tax pro to understand how to properly title and take distributions from any inherited retirement account.

If the accounts are regular taxable accounts, then consolidating can have many advantages. Your accounts will be easier to monitor, asset allocation strategies will be simpler to execute and your account expenses could drop, particularly if you use the lower-cost company. Some brokerages offer deposit bonuses, and a higher combined balance also may entitle you to additional perks.

The primary downsides to consolidation involve risk mitigation. Brokerage failures are rare, but they do happen, and some investors opt to use more than one brokerage if their account balances exceed coverage by the Securities Investor Protection Corp.

SIPC provides coverage of up to $500,000, including $250,000 for cash, if cash or securities are missing from an account when a brokerage fails. Similar accounts are combined for SIPC purposes, so multiple IRA accounts at one brokerage will be considered one account. However, the $500,000 limit applies to each category of account. So someone with an individual account, a joint account, an IRA and a Roth would have a total of $2 million in SIPC coverage.

Having accounts at different companies also can help you retain access to at least some of your money if one of your accounts is hacked.

Q&A: Old inherited IRA is safe from “drain it in 10 years” requirement

July 8, 2024 By Liz Weston

Dear Liz: You have written that non-spouse beneficiaries are now required to drain their inherited IRAs within 10 years. Is this requirement retroactive?

I inherited an IRA from my mother in 2015. I have been taking out the minimum required each year. If I must drain the account within 10 years, will the increase in yearly income affect my Social Security benefits?

Answer: The 10-year requirement applies only to accounts inherited from people who died after Dec. 31, 2019.

IRA distributions don’t affect Social Security benefits, but could affect Medicare premiums if the withdrawal is large enough. Taxable income above certain limits triggers a Medicare surcharge known as an income-related monthly adjustment amount, or IRMAA.

Q&A: When an inherited house gets sold, it pays to know the tax rules

June 17, 2024 By Liz Weston

Dear Liz: My sister and I inherited a house from our mom in 2003. Back then, it was appraised at close to $500,000. It’s now worth $1.3 million and we want to sell and split the profits. My sister has lived in the house since Mom passed. Approximately what would the tax liability be?

Answer: You’ll determine the potentially taxable profit by subtracting the tax basis — the amount the house was appraised for at your mother’s death, plus any qualifying improvements — from the sale proceeds. Your sister can exempt $250,000 of her share of the profits, since she has owned and lived in the house for two of the previous five years. If her share of the profit was $400,000, for example, she would owe long-term capital gains taxes on $150,000 of that.

As a non-occupant, you wouldn’t have the option to exempt any of the profit, so you would owe long-term capital gains taxes on your entire $400,000 share. Long-term capital gains rates depend on your income, but the federal rate is 15% for most.

Q&A: My parents cut my kid out of their will. (Ouch!) Can I give her some cash?

June 10, 2024 By Sangah Lee

Dear Liz: My parents wrote my youngest daughter out of their will (my other children were left in). As both parents are now gone, I am in the process of settling the estate. I feel horrible that my parents did this. My daughter is very upset with me and her siblings for not sharing the inheritance. I am under the impression that there is nothing we can do about the will. Having said that, I would like to give my daughter a good amount of money but I believe I can’t give more than $18,000 a year. Am I correct in my two assumptions?

Answer: Yes and no.

Yes, as the executor of the estate, you’re bound to carry out your parents’ wishes as expressed in their estate planning documents.

But no, there’s no limit to how much money you can give someone. Gifts over a certain size — which is $18,000 this year — have to be reported to the IRS. But you won’t owe gift taxes until the amounts you give away over the annual limit exceed your lifetime limit, which is currently $13.61 million.

That said, a large enough gift could have an impact on your own estate. Consider getting advice from your estate planning attorney before you proceed.

Q&A: My ex-wife lent my money to her boss. What can I do?

June 10, 2024 By Liz Weston

Dear Liz: I recently found out that my ex lent one of her former bosses $2,500 to get his brother out of jail on bond. My ex took the money out of a joint account that I had opened with the inheritance I got when my dad died. It’s now been four years and I haven’t received a penny of the loan back. I could really use the money now as I have medical bills to pay. Question is who do I go after? My ex or the boss?

Answer: You may have read in this column that inheritances can be kept as separate property, even in community property states where other assets acquired during marriage are generally considered jointly owned.

An inheritance can lose its status as separate property, however, if it’s commingled with joint funds. That’s what you did when you opened a joint account with the money: You gave your ex access to the funds.